How To Start A Podcast Today

Want to know how to start a podcast? We're running an experiment in (almost) real time to see if we can create a brand new podcast in one Buzzcast episode. 

Megan from Buzzsprout Weekly joins us as we work through her concept and niche, to format, equipment, software, artwork, and launching. We walk through the exact decisions we’d make if we were starting a podcast today!

If you’ve been sitting on a podcast idea, feeling overwhelmed, or trying to convince a friend to finally hit publish, this episode shows you exactly how doable starting a podcast really is!

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Buzzsprout About Us Page (can you find Sparkling Dee?)
• Sign up for Buzzsprout’s upcoming Start Podcasting Cohort for additional support launching!
• How to Start a Podcast Guide
• Buzzcast Episode: Never Run Out Of Episode Ideas
• Podcast Equipment Guide
• Podcast Name Generator
• 10 Places to Get Free Music for Your Podcast

Contact Buzzcast

• Send us Fan Mail
• Tweet us at @buzzcastpodcast, @albanbrooke, @kfinn, and @JordanPods

Thanks for listening and Keep Podcasting!

Transcript

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Buzzsprout's About Us Page

Jordan 0:00

Alban, did you see we got a fan mail message from Sparkling Dee, our number one super fan of Buzzcast?

Alban 0:07

Yes. That was a nice little bonus Christmas gift. Dee wrote in something about our about us page. Yeah. We last cycle put together an about us page, pulling together all these different things we've done over the last 17 years. And one of them was we talked about the Buzzsprout meetups. And I went through all my photos, and some of them have Dee in them. And so she made the page. And I don't even think we've talked about this page at all, but somehow Dee found it and scrolled down and found a picture of herself.

Jordan 0:39

Yeah. So she's like an honorary Buzzsprout member now on our About page.

Alban 0:44

You are. Welcome to the team, Dee. This is how uh you get a job at Buzzsprout. We take enough photos that you make it onto our About Us page.

Jordan 0:51

I feel like D has been on the team for a while. Yes.

Alban 0:54

Dee has been on the team for a while.

Jordan 0:55

That's really fun. I'll I'll link to that in the show notes so that our listeners can go to our really amazing About Us page and see if you can find Sparkling D. Here we go.

Guest Intro: Megan

Jordan 1:09

Welcome back to Buzzcast, the podcast about all things podcasting from the people at BuzzSprout. Filling in for Kevin is Megan, the third member of our marketing team. And Megan, this is your first ever Buzzcast.

Megan 1:25

I'm a longtime listener, first time guest.

Jordan 1:28

I love listening to this every week. So I'm excited.

Alban 1:30

We're glad to have you.

Jordan 1:31

Yeah, Megan's got a lot of uh podcast experience under her belt as of this year because she has been hosting the Buzzsprout Weekly podcast, which is the audio version of our newsletter. And so if you get the Buzzsprout newsletter, you're probably already familiar with Megan because she writes all of those newsletters. So this is the voice of the person behind those newsletters. It's kind of a weird way to say it, but they get the gist.

Announcing The Start Podcasting Cohort

Jordan 1:56

And actually, one of the reasons that I brought Megan in is not just because Kevin's out, but Megan has been working very hard on a start podcasting cohort that we're launching in January 2026. And Megan, do you want to tell our listeners like a little bit about what that start podcasting cohort is going to be?

Megan 2:17

Yes. So I'm super excited about this. And it kind of ties in because I get to put on my teacher hat a little bit to do this. But the cohort is going to be small group instruction to help you launch your podcast. So if you've been sitting on a podcast idea for a long time, but just are having some issues or you need some more guidance or help to take you to hitting publish and officially launching your show, the Start Podcasting cohort is for you. We are going to be doing it over a course of 30 days. There are going to be little prompts for you to do every single day, a small group of people who are going to be doing it alongside of you. So if you need some support or guidance or just a little cheering squad to help you through, we are going to have an awesome community helping you get the show off the ground.

Alban 3:04

This is going to be so fun. Something we've talked about for years. And it's hard to imagine how we make this work for thousands and thousands of people that will start a podcast. But for one small group, Meg is going to be running this thing. And my hope, and I think this will happen, is that you may end up making a lot of friends in the group too.

Jordan 3:22

Yeah.

Alban 3:23

People who are going through the same thing. We're all kind of starting podcasts together. And you're just going to be in a group of people who are all dedicated to the same thing, working through the same problems. So I would absolutely, especially if you listen to Buzzcast, apply and put that in your application because Megan's only going to be able to take a few people. Maybe Megan, can the Buzzcast people get like a little bit of a priority? Can you give them a little bit of a bump?

Megan 3:47

Absolutely. We'll make sure that the application link is in the show notes for this episode. It's just going to be awesome. You're going to have full access to me answering your questions every day. Some other members of the Buzz Sprout team might jump in and help out too. So if you are looking to start a podcast but are really hoping just for a little extra support, this is an awesome group to join.

Jordan 4:05

Oh, it's going to be so much fun. All

How to Start a Podcast

Jordan 4:07

right. So for this episode, we're going to go through how to start a podcast. And we're actually going to, I'm going to say attempt just because we haven't accomplished it yet. But I'm highly confident that throughout this entire episode, we are going to start a podcast from scratch. Because, you know, we're heading into January. We've got those New Year's resolutions. People want to start a podcast, but maybe they're feeling like a little bit timid about it or unsure that it is as simple as we, you know, try to convey that it is to start a podcast these days. And so yeah, hopefully this will give you some um ideas to start your own podcast if you've been just kind of on the fence about it, or if you have a friend that you've been trying to get to start a podcast, you can say, hey, look how easy it is. Send them this episode and we'll show them how it's done.

Alban 4:59

Yeah. And the idea for this is we've been teaching this for years. And I think for a long period, we gave people options. And options are really nice because you hear, like, oh, if one, two, you could do one, you could do two, you could do three. Here are the ways to decide. But then when we took a step back, Jordan and I are talking about it before, we were like, what if we just talked about what we would do today? You know, we both have been doing this for a long time. Megan's been doing this for a long time. We've all done tons of research. If we were to start a new show today, how would we do it? And the answer for me changed quite a bit since podcast movement, I think. What tools I would use and what strategies I would use for a podcast. So I am excited to kind of talk through each piece of this. And Megan has graciously offered to be the test subject for our podcast planning.

Megan 5:52

I feel like I am getting to join on such a good episode because there's just been some podcast ideas swirling in my household. So I'm really excited to be able to hopefully put one of those into practice today. And I feel like I just jumped on at the right time.

Alban 6:05

One thing I really like that you said to start, Jordan, was if you're starting a podcast, you might feel a little bit nervous. I think there is something real about when you start podcasting or you really start anything, especially online, because when you're doing something online, the marketing and the like sharing of the thing is so built in. You know, if you start playing a recorder at home, you're not really nervous because no one hears you. And if you start doing painting, I was thinking this year about trying to get into acrylics, you're not really nervous because no one's gonna see it.

Jordan 6:38

Yeah.

Alban 6:38

And until you decide you want to share it way later on. But there's something about creating online a YouTube channel or a podcast that you kind of know I'm gonna be posting this publicly very soon.

Jordan 6:50

Yeah.

Alban 6:51

It'll be almost like painting something, and the first painting gets published online for everyone to see. And that anxiety is like totally normal. I know I felt it with every one of these projects. You know, you have a level of like tension, and it really takes a little while for it to kind of go away as you realize like I'm just testing stuff out. So if you're in that boat, we're with you, like we've all been there, and we are all still there with you because it's just how it feels to put stuff out online. Yeah. And good for you for pushing through it because I know it's uncomfortable. I was so uncomfortable the first time I started posting stuff online.

Jordan 7:27

Yeah. And I mean, when you're creating a podcast like by yourself, or maybe it's like you and a friend, like a lot of that responsibility to create something good falls on you. I mean, Megan, when we started Buzzsprout Weekly, how nervous were you, even with a full studio and a podcast producer in your pocket helping you through it? I was so nervous.

Megan 7:48

And I had been teaching other people how to start podcasts for years at that point. And so I felt like I'm like, I literally know the answers to all of my questions, but it's just really scary to learn in front of other people. Um, and to have like other people seeing your improvement and changes every week. But it does get better. And I remember when I started, I was like, Alban, I can't even hear my voice on this podcast. It sounds so crazy. I can't believe I sound like that. And you told me you said it'll get better. Like you'll get used to hearing it. And it really is true. Like there is an adjustment period and a learning curve, I would say, but you get used to learning in front of people. You get used to hearing your voice. All of it can um start to become second nature in a way. So you do just have to keep pushing through and it will start to feel more normal. Yeah.

Alban 8:30

The voice thing is totally real. Like in your own head, I just have this like rich, beautiful voice. And then I listened on the first I heard on a recording. I think when you're when we were younger, less stuff was recorded. And the first time I heard it, I was like, that's what I sound like. I'm like, oh my God. Like, no one told me.

Jordan 8:46

Why you guys have been letting me talk like this forever?

Alban 8:50

Yeah, that's what it. I felt like, yeah, I felt like everybody had been letting me down by not saying, Man, you gotta figure out the voice.

Jordan 8:57

Hey, maybe try something new over there. All right. So,

Developing The Podcast Concept

Jordan 9:00

Megan, you were talking about having some ideas swirling. Is there one in particular that we could work on for this episode? Yes.

Megan 9:07

I actually got an email a few weeks ago from a Buzzbrow podcaster who saw that I used to be a teacher and wanted to figure out how I got out of teaching and into working for podcasting. And this really struck a chord with me because I am a former teacher. I used to teach elementary school. And my husband is also a teacher and he's been teaching for 13 years, but is starting to look at making a career change and is wanting to get out of teaching. And it is such a unique position to move from teaching in a school into a different job, whether that's a corporate setting or whatever your next move is. It can be very hard to see how your skills are transferable, especially if you've never done something else before. And so I thought that would be a really interesting idea for a podcast. And hopefully you guys can help me flesh it out and see what we can do. I love this idea.

Alban 9:57

That's a good idea. I also like it starting with somebody actually wants to hear the story. It didn't start from a place of, hey, I want to quit my job at Buzzsprout and make a lot of money podcasting. How do I do that? And oh, I'll start this podcast. It started with someone reached out and asked me about this area of expertise that I have. And I think it's really interesting that your husband's also kind of thinking through the same process right now.

Jordan 10:21

Yeah, I mean, that's exactly how I started my podcast was I was like trying to find an something specific, couldn't find it. And so I think that you are also encountering this area where you're finding a need that is very specific. It is already super niche. It's not just like finding anybody, find a job, it's it's teachers going into a different career path. And so I think that that's a really niche idea. Yeah, this is perfect.

Alban 10:45

So step one on our podcast, how to start a podcast list, is picking a podcast concept and a why. So let me ask transitioning out of teaching, why do you want to start this podcast?

Megan 10:58

I think teaching is one of the most underappreciated professions. And I think people who are teachers have given so much and have served so much. And I don't think that there's a lot of resources to support them sometimes while they're in the classroom, but then also if they want to transition out of the classroom, there's not a lot of resources to help them. Um and I think it would be great to be able to offer whatever perspective I have or perspective that other people have to help them make that transition.

Alban 11:23

So you want to help teachers. We're trying to share, trying to support. Is there any creative outlet that you have in here? Is there any other purposes or mainly the one?

Megan 11:33

Well, I talk about podcasting every week. I write about it every day. So I think to make that all more authentic, too, I have to continue to keep podcasting. And so I think it could also help me for creativity-wise to see what other roadblocks I might run into starting a podcast in 2026 and hopefully help other podcasters who are going through the same thing.

Alban 11:53

Ooh, I like that. That's good.

Brainstorming Episode Ideas

Megan 11:55

All right.

Jordan 11:55

So you have your niche, you have your topic. So this is something that you enjoy talking about. It's something that you're passionate about. It feels like it's something that you could easily find a specific angle or unique perspective on it because it is such a niche topic. One of the tips that we give podcasters when they're first thinking about starting a podcast, they're picking their topic, they're picking their niche. And I really feel like the first step in like moving from an idea into the actual creation and planning stage of it is to come up with 10 episode ideas. I don't think we have enough time for that for this episode, but just a tip to make sure that you have a strong enough topic that you're passionate enough about to continue making episodes. And like Megan said, keep podcasting.

Alban 12:39

Jordan, what if we do? What can we brainstorm for just a few minutes and talk through some ideas for episodes?

Jordan 12:45

Let's do it.

Alban 12:46

Okay. Megan, what do you want to do? What's an episode that you'd like to do?

Megan 12:51

I think I would love to do one about transferable skills. Trying to figure out how your skills are, what skills you have, what skills can transfer out. I would love to do one about maybe like career aptitude tests or different things that you can take to figure out what strengths brought you into teaching and then what those also transfer to other careers.

Alban 13:10

One that I'd like to hear would be like the day you decided to leave teaching. I think about there's a specific moment I know where I was like, I've got to get out of being a lawyer. And I'm sure you have some moments like that for teaching.

Megan 13:24

Yeah. I think battling burnout could be a big one too. I think a lot of teachers face burnout towards the end.

Alban 13:29

Yeah.

Megan 13:29

Um, I have an idea.

Jordan 13:31

It's no secret that teachers are usually severely underpaid. And I know that like moving from one career to another without having like saved up enough money or having like a big enough nest egg is very scary. So maybe like a financial planning episode for career transitioning would be good.

Megan 13:50

Yeah. I also think like a salary negotiation would be good too. I think sometimes when people know you're leaving teaching, they might assume you will have a lower salary because that's what you're used to. So it can be helpful to know how to negotiate that as well. That's a great one.

Alban 14:02

Yeah. What um I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I'd imagine leaving teaching could feel a bit like I feel guilty or I really love the kids. Maybe I don't love the administrative part. Maybe I do want to feel a bit more financially secure. Is there an episode idea we could do around like kind of the guilt or like leaving the kids behind piece?

Megan 14:22

Absolutely. I think when you leave any job or transfer any career, there is a like grief process that you go through because there's good and bad parts to everything. Yeah, it's a major life change. Yeah.

Alban 14:33

Or there could also be an episode that's like, should you leave all at once, or is there a way to kind of test out something alternative?

Megan 14:41

Yeah, for sure. Maybe like even that could branch off into like a whole like side hustle or side gig series, like summer side hustle series.

Jordan 14:49

Yeah.

Alban 14:50

Oh, yeah. I didn't even think about that. Teachers do have the built-in few months where they can go experiment with something else.

Megan 14:56

It'd be a great way to like do an internship or test another job. That'd be awesome.

Alban 15:00

And even uh interviews. I mean, I feel like you could interview tons of former teachers or maybe even people who left teaching, maybe came back, and just hearing the stories and how people processed it.

Megan 15:10

Yeah.

Alban 15:11

I think that could be super interesting.

Megan 15:13

The more stories, the better. So I think that easily puts us over 10 episodes. Yeah. Well, that didn't take hardly as long as I thought it was going to take.

Jordan 15:20

So also helpful to brainstorm in a group. Absolutely. Pull in your friends and family. Yeah.

Alban 15:25

And we've talked about this a ton in the past, but if you are looking for episode ideas, we did that episode with Dave Jackson about how to come up with episode ideas. You can also use things like Ask the Public, which is just a website that will show you all the questions people are searching online. We could search like teaching or teachers or career changes and just see what kind of questions people ask. And then that'll probably kind of be part of the process of brainstorming. I'm sure you could talk to Chat GPT about help me come up with episode ideas and that could be a place to find some.

Jordan 15:57

Yeah, absolutely.

Alban 15:58

But the main thing I really want people to think through is can you think of a handful of ideas? Because if you do, this is probably something you really care about versus something that you're just, I don't know, that it would be fun to do the podcast, but maybe it's not like something you're really passionate about. So thinking through if you can think of 10 episodes that you'd actually like to do, it's a pretty good indicator this is going to be an awesome idea for you.

Deciding on Format and Publishing Frequency

Jordan 16:22

Yeah. All right. So let's move into our second step of like making a podcast where you kind of decide on your podcast format. And format is really important because it needs to match how much energy you have to put into creating the podcast and also your lifestyle. So, you know, if you're a really busy person, it's really important to choose a format that is going to, you know, be flexible with that. It's going to work with your busy lifestyle. Or if you have all the time in the world and your friend also has all the time in the world, then having a co-hosted podcast is probably fine because you guys are going to be able to like schedule it together. So just some things to think about. So, you know, when you're picking your podcast format, you want to think about like the style. You know, is it going to be co-hosted? Is it a solo one? Is it scripted? Yeah. You want to think about episode length. How long do you want the episodes to be? That's going to determine how much time you spend recording or planning or editing. And then also the publishing schedule. So this is like how frequently you drop episodes. Is it going to be weekly? Maybe you're just too busy to do weekly and you're a little nervous about doing that much work. Make it bi-weekly, make it monthly. Just do whatever is going to fit best within your lifestyle.

Alban 17:34

What do you think, Megan? How do you envision this show? Is it solo? Is it, do you co-host it? Are you doing interviews?

Megan 17:40

I think it would be really cool to co-host it with my husband, who is actually going through this right now because I think that could be two really cool perspectives. But I also think there could be some cool interviews with people who have gone through it in the past as well. So I could see it being like two co-hosts or sometimes three if we're doing an interview. Yeah. Of course, the more co-hosts you add, we both have pretty busy lives. So, and we have a toddler. So you just never know what chunks of time you're gonna have. So I would say we would probably do maybe once or twice a month, depending on how quickly we can get these out and the amount of time we feel comfortable spending on it. Yeah.

Alban 18:12

It actually makes me think of um two guys on a plane that we talked about in our last big episode. We did an audit of their podcast, and it's a couple who's talking about being flight attendants and talking about the whole industry. And they both have this similar experience. You can do the same thing with your husband.

Megan 18:31

Um, I also just want to say, too, about the format. From the years I spent working in support, I've talked to a lot of different podcasters. And I don't think you need to put a lot of pressure on yourself that it has to be a daily podcast or a weekly podcast. There are really successful podcasts that only publish once a month, or a really successful podcast that put out a 10-episode series and then take a six-month break and do it again. So I think there's a lot of different ways that you can be successful with your podcast format. It's really just what works for you to put out your best content.

Alban 18:59

Yeah, I totally agree. Years ago, my mom talked about doing a podcast about homeschooling, and she homeschooled me and all of my siblings. And I was like, you did this way before it was kind of normal. And tons of people would love to hear about this. And she got really caught up around like, well, am I gonna do this every week forever

Recording And Editing Software Picks

Alban 19:20

for the rest of my life? And it was just like it was it became so big. And I was like, just pick out like five episodes and just talk about like how did you even come up with a curriculum? What was it like to teach kids at different ages? And we kind of brainstormed a few episodes. I was like, just do those five and like then let it be and see if you even like it. Like you may end up loving it or you may end up hating it. You have no clue. You don't have to commit to this for the rest of your life. All you have to commit to is 30 days in January and put out a few episodes and see what you think about it.

Jordan 19:52

You know, there's a lot of podcasts that start out as just limited series, like they're only intending to put out 10. Episodes or 15 episodes, and then they go, actually, you know what? The rabbit hole goes deeper. I have more things to talk about. I have more guests that want to come on. And so they wind up actually making it a more consistent publishing schedule. So yeah, I think that's a good idea. Like if you're feeling overwhelmed, like you're committing to this like lifelong goal, and I don't know where I'm gonna be in five years. Sure, just commit yourself to like 10 episodes, five episodes, whatever.

Alban 20:26

We got a message from Sarah, who did uh Wish I Known Then podcast. And she wrote us and said what she wished she knew was the templates make everything easier. Templates for invite emails, reminder emails, thank you emails, show notes, scripts, social media images, everything. And I really like this thinking. And overall, I guess just the message would be everything does get easier the more you do it. Yeah. You start to figure out how to make things repeatable. I would not worry too much about making those templates the first time. I'd say, let's create four or five episodes just in whatever way you do. And once you've done that, then you'll have an idea of okay, which pieces of this could be made into a template, which things are you doing regularly that feel natural because some things will get changed pretty quickly. So don't create the templates first, but they will be really useful later on.

Megan 21:19

Like every show is so different. So every person's workflow is going to be different for how they do things. And you don't know that until you get in and start working on it. So that's a great point. Yeah.

Getting Podcast Equipment

Alban 21:28

So step three, we've got to get you some equipment. Megan, you've already got equipment, but let's pretend that you don't. If you didn't, I would just send you a Samsung Q2U and I would also buy you a new cable so that it plugged in USB-C into your computer. And I think that's all we'd send you. Maybe do you have wired headphones?

Megan 21:48

I do, yes.

Alban 21:49

Do you have my favorite, the uh Apple earbuds? The $20.

Megan 21:53

I do, but I think mine are like Amazon's version, but they still work. And that is actually exactly what you sent me when I started my podcast is you sent me the Q2U. Yeah. And that is still to this day what I use on my pantry floor. Yep. It's where I have the best sound in my house with the Q2U, and it works great. And you would never know that that is where I'm recording.

Alban 22:13

I did not know until you just told me. So you record in the pantry?

Megan 22:16

Yep. On the floor in the pantry. Jordan has seen the inside of my pantry many times, knows what we're eating that week, but it gives the best sound. It's the smallest space. Yeah. We call it the pantry sessions.

Jordan 22:27

Yeah, the pantry sessions. Yeah. And it's funny because yeah, when she first got her Q to you, it was one of those things where like we're kind of going around and testing out where the sound works best. And so that's something you kind of have to do is you just walk around your house. If you don't have a dedicated studio space, just walk around your house and record some audio and say which room of the house you're in and then go back and listen. And then whatever one sounds best, that's gonna be great. Even if it's your walk-in closet or your pantry, because our super polished buzzprout podcast is recorded in Megan's pantry.

Alban 22:59

Yeah, I think tons of places that if you have a walk-in closet, that is really nice because you have so many hanging clothes that are gonna kind of absorb the sound. And just in general, the more things, you know, the more that the room looks like a pack rat, not a modernist museum, that's gonna make for better audio. Oh, yeah. And you just want to have things around that will disperse the sound, that will break it up, that won't allow you to get all that reverb. But the closet is a great spot to record.

Jordan 23:27

So Megan had mentioned that she will co-host this podcast with her husband. So that's going to be an in-person co-hosted podcast, which has different equipment needs than a USB microphone. Do you have a recommendation for an in-person for two?

Alban 23:43

I really like the Scarlet 2i2. It's pretty easy. Or we could get like a roadcaster duo, maybe if that's in the budget. But we're getting some sort of audio interface and two Q2Us. You know, one nice thing is they both can take XLR cables and USB-C. So if you're in the same place, we're using XLRs going into your audio interface, which goes into the computer. Or you could, if I don't know, you're traveling, then you could put it just directly into the computer. I think there's there's always a temptation to want to buy like the perfect setup day one.

Jordan 24:19

Yeah.

Alban 24:19

And I would recommend resisting that. I did a talk somewhere and somebody was like, What would you recommend that I buy for equipment? And I started giving them like the standard, I just buy the Q2U. And they go, Well, my budget's only $10,000. And I was like, What world is that are we living in? I was like, I don't have a $2,000 setup. I'm not sure where I would spend $10,000. Maybe he's thinking he's building out a whole studio or something. He was just talking audio only. But there's like this draw that, oh, if I'm gonna do it, I might as well do it perfectly. And I think the best thing to do is to start with the cheaper, more inexpensive, the thing that if you ever give it away, you won't feel a bunch of regret. And you just buy that, you podcast with for a bit. And when you notice, oh, you know what? I would really like something that looked different on camera because now we're doing video podcasts. Okay, cool. You've grown into something new. Or you realize I'm doing way more in-person setups. So now I want to buy an audio mixer. Maybe you realize the big thing holding you back is that you've got a six-year-old computer and you'd really like to upgrade the computer. That will be unique to you in the future. You may you probably won't even know what those preferences will be. So just feel comfortable that you're starting off with a $60 mic because it's a great $60 mic. Yeah. And in the future, you will have the opportunity to say, Oh, I really want to upgrade something else.

Megan 25:51

We also have a great blog post on equipment. And Alban in that blog post shares his beginner setup. And then if you do in a few years decide you want to upgrade what he would choose to upgrade. Um, and that blog post is really helpful. And I share that with a lot of people who are wanting to get started.

Alban 26:06

I like sharing that one because it's like these are the only two setups that I've ever really recommended. One is $68 total, and the other is $2,000. And I'm like, really, the in-between zone doesn't have much allure to me because it feels like I'm spending money to upgrade. The audio is not getting much better, and it's also not the exact setup that I would want. So just over time, you will develop preferences and those preferences will guide what the next thing to upgrade is.

Recording Software

Jordan 26:39

All right. So let's move on to choosing software. Okay, so what software will you be recording into? If you're going to be remote recording, we recommend Adobe Podcast is a great option. Zoom is really great, especially if you have guests because people are already familiar with it. But if you're doing a local recording, which Megan, it sounds like you would be, honestly, some of our top recommendations are the free software that you can get. So it's like GarageBand and Audacity.

Megan 27:06

They're solid. I know I've used GarageBand a few times when I've recorded without Jordan for Bust Brout Weekly, and it's been really easy. I've also had great experiences with Adobe Podcast. I was surprised at how easy that was to pick up and how easy it was for editing. That was shocking to me. So I think those are two that I'm really comfortable with that I would definitely want to continue with.

Alban 27:25

Yeah, Megan, I started looking at Adobe Podcast back when they called it Project Shasta.

Jordan 27:30

Oh my gosh, I forgot about that.

Alban 27:31

And when I first looked at it, I was like, okay, this is like a nice little side project and didn't really think about it again. And then Jay over to Adobe Podcast asked me to do a session with him for podcast movement where we taught people how to start a podcast all the way through. And since we were doing it together, we uh showed Adobe Podcasts for recording and editing, and then Buzzbrow for uploading, publishing, promoting. And when we did it together, it made me realize how far Adobe Podcasts had come on the editing side. And because most of my life I've been writing, editing stuff that's written feels so much more natural to me than editing like in a timeline, like movies or audio. And using that Adobe Podcasts kind of edit the words to edit the audio interface feels so intuitive. So yeah, I think honestly, even if I wasn't doing remote recording, that's probably what I would be using is I'd record it to my computer and just upload those files or even record it directly into Adobe Podcast. I think that would be a pretty nice setup because that's where I'd want to be editing.

Jordan 28:39

Yeah, we've definitely come a long way in the audio editing software for people who are not audio engineers, because back in the day you had to learn just the basics of this really complicated software. And now it's catered to, you know, the average creator who is just starting out or, you know, doesn't have time to edit. We've got all these like AI tools. We've got transcript editing. I mean, it's just amazing. So there's such great options out there. And if you wanted to go with like a paid option, so we talked about like Garage Band and Audacity, classic. Um, but if you want to go with paid options, Descript is really great. They've added a ton of new tools. They have the transcript editing. Hindenburg is fantastic. It was created for audio journalism. And so they have uh really great tools that are easy to use for podcasters. And they've also been adding so many bells and whistles.

Alban 29:28

Yeah. A lot of the software that we started podcasting with was really just repurposed music software. GarageBand is made for bands. It's made from, you know, music editing. And so you have stuff like the metronome built in, and you have selecting like which of the uh instruments is on each track. And there's lots of things that are just kind of built with the assumption that this is going to be for recording a band or recording some kind of music. And there's something really nice when you're using a tool that was built for podcasting because all the assumptions just naturally fit with the way you're working and the way the tool is promoting for you to work are in alignment.

Naming The Podcast

Jordan 30:10

Now, before we create our podcast in Buzz Sprout, we need to lock down the podcast title and create cover art.

Alban 30:20

All right, so Megan, I'm pulling up the podcast name generator that we created for Buzz Sprout. And here's what I have so far. Tell me what you think about this. Um, I'm describing your podcast. Okay. I've described it as a podcast about teachers who are considering leaving and transferring their skills to another domain. The podcast is trying to support teachers during this period of their career.

Megan 30:43

Okay.

Alban 30:43

And the tone, um, it sounds like this is a bit more maybe inspirational, maybe educational. Yes. It's not edgy. No, we're not edgy.

Megan 30:53

I would say friendly.

Alban 30:55

Okay.

Megan 30:56

Inspirational is a good one. I like that. Educational.

Alban 30:59

All right. I'll write those in. And this is more of like a round table or a co-hosted podcast. So you might have interviews on, but often it will be you and Eric. So I'm generating some names now. Tell me if any of these land.

Megan 31:14

All right, let them rip.

Alban 31:16

Teacher career switch. Grade breaker. Exit classroom, enter career.

Megan 31:26

Very self-explanatory.

Alban 31:27

Soft skills, hard pivots.

Megan 31:30

Interesting.

Alban 31:31

The second syllabus.

Megan 31:33

Oh, that's an interesting one. That's a fun one.

Alban 31:36

That is uh not one I would have thought of. Uh, land your next chapter, switch and enrich, soft chalk, hard reset. Um classroom to career.

Megan 31:50

Ooh.

Alban 31:51

Are any of these landing?

Megan 31:52

I liked the second syllabus, kind of like your next roadmap or your next game plan for what comes after teaching.

Alban 31:58

So I looked at the podcast name generator and it is not in use. So second syllabus is available, and now we can go on. Um, we'll put a link in the show notes to the podcast name generator. So if you're going through this process, you can do it as well. After that, let's

Creating Podcast Cover Art

Alban 32:14

go create some podcast artwork.

Jordan 32:16

This is the fun part. This is the part that always gets me so excited.

Megan 32:19

I think artwork can be really intimidating for people because not everybody has a creative or artsy side to them. Um, but I really love playing around in Canva. And I think they make it so easy to make logos and podcast artwork too. Like you can get in there and throw a few graphics together with your podcast name and it can make it look really professional without needing to have the huge skill set.

Jordan 32:39

The other day, um I was poking around, I love Adobe products, and I was poking around Adobe Express, and they also have a whole podcast cover art section that you can use. Yeah. And I think it's like a freemium model. So they have some free things that you can do, but I don't think it's very expensive. Adobe Express is really easy to use. I would put it in the same camp as like Canva. So that's another thing that's like so different from when I first started my podcast. Like, there's just all these tools out there, you know, whether it be like AI image creation to help you create your podcast cover art or these super simple templated designs that you can customize and then no one really know that it's from these templates. Like it's so cool.

Megan 33:23

It's like so many barriers to entry have been broken down. Yeah, that's exactly it.

Jordan 33:28

That's exactly how it feels, especially in the last couple of years.

Alban 33:31

Okay, so I wrote this prompt that creates podcast artwork in Chat GPT. What it does is it's trying to create first a podcast artwork concept. And so we're creating a brief for the artwork. And then once we have all the elements, then we tell it to create the artwork. So it's a two-step process. So I put in, you know, the podcast name is the second syllabus and the podcast description, along with the whole brief of what we wanted to do. And it wrote a like three-page brief about what should be in this artwork. But it actually did a really good job of describing the podcast. The podcast is the second syllabus. It's about teachers who are leaving or seriously considering leaving the teaching profession. It's not a burnout rant or a how to quit gimmick. It's a reflective, honest, and forward-thinking podcast. It's a space where educators examine identity, purpose, grief, relief, fear, and possibility as they imagine life beyond the classroom. I thought that was a really good description.

Jordan 34:35

Yeah.

Alban 34:36

So we've got a lot of ideas for the podcast concept, the tone, all that gets incorporated uh from this. And then I've had it create two pieces of artwork. So based on these, I'm gonna pull it up and Megan, you tell me if either of these land for

Megan's Cover Art Option 1

Alban 34:53

you.

Megan 34:54

Oh, wow. That's so cool.

Alban 34:57

All right, can you describe this for us?

Megan 34:59

It looks like a graded paper. It is cream colored, and you can see some faded black writing, and it has red marks on it, circles with an arrow, and it says the second syllabus in a great serif font. Looks very like Times New Roman Professional.

Alban 35:15

And then we have one more

Megan's Cover Art Option 2

Alban 35:17

option two.

Megan 35:18

I'm laughing because it was a little bit like true crime. The second one is it has like an open door going from a dark room into a light, like a bright light, like almost like you picture like in the afterlife. And then also says the second syllabus in red and black, same font. I think based on these, I'm I'm liking the first one.

Jordan 35:42

I like the first one too, but I feel what you're saying with it seeming like very true crime, like it does look like a true crime documentary. Like the second syllabus is like the teacher murderer. So I wonder if maybe we use less red because that would help.

Megan 35:55

Also, it's like a new thing in teaching that you're not supposed to grade with red because there's such like a psychological association that it's bad.

Jordan 36:03

Oh. Isn't that interesting? That is. It makes sense though. Can we do like um second in like blue or something instead? Doesn't that feel like more of a classroomy color? Yeah.

Megan's Cover Art Choice

Jordan 36:14

Yeah, the blue feels like educational or business-y to me. I agree.

Alban 36:18

All right. So we've got some artwork now for the podcast. Where do we head next, Jordan?

Overcoming First Recording Jitters

Jordan 36:24

So I think our next step in the podcast creation process would be maybe the hardest step, which is creating your first episode. This part is always super awkward. It feels weird. You might have to record your first episode a couple times, just like get the jitters out. I always recommend for people to record their first episode with the intention that it's going to go in the trash, like no one's gonna hear it. I often feel like that's the time that you get over the stumbling of, okay, how is the episode intro going to work out? How are we going to like transition into different things? That didn't work. It's low stakes because it's just gonna go in the trash. Who cares if you mess up? And then you can say, like, okay, now that we've got that figured out, let's write out our outline, how it would

Closing, Next Episode Goals, And Olympics

Jordan 37:10

actually look, and then record the first episode.

Alban 37:13

I'm I'm with you a hundred percent. I've done this a few times when we've started new podcasts. Years ago, Travis and I did a podcast called How to Start a Podcast. And then Jelan and I redid it a few years ago. The first time we recorded it, we recorded the first episode. You know, we hit stop and Travis goes, That's great. I went, I think it was good. I think we could make it great. And I hit record again and we did the whole thing again. And round two, I think was so much better. And it feels weird to do the whole thing again. You're like, didn't we just finish this? But there's something about like you've loaded it all into your brain, you've kind of thought through which parts were awkward, which parts were really good, and you just naturally navigate it a little bit better. All the handoffs between the hosts is a little bit better. So I like just go into that first one, write a short outline, have a few points of things you want to hit, and then Megan, you and Eric sit down, you hit record and just feel comfortable. Like maybe this first recording, this first hour that we record, we'll just hit stop and we can just put it to the side and come back the next day and do it again.

Megan 38:19

Yeah, you kind of need that time to like get all the jitters out and practice with it being low stakes. Yes, absolutely.

Alban 38:26

Another thing I think about is just try to talk like a person and talk to the person that you are talking to. Don't talk to a hypothetical audience. You don't know who's out there yet. It's not gonna be your bully from high school. It's just gonna end up being somebody who's interested in this topic, but really just try to talk to your co-hosts. And I think you do it just gets better. Like you've talked to your husband a lot and you're good at it, but there's something weird's gonna happen when you hit record that both you're gonna be like for both of us, I'm sure. Good to see you again on this Tuesday. It's like no one ever has talked like that, but for some reason, once the mic's turn on, something weird goes on in our brain and we start performing.

Jordan 39:08

Clutching the outline. I know the feeling.

Alban 39:10

Yeah.

Jordan 39:11

I always picture like Teledigan nights where he doesn't know what to do with his hands when he's getting his photo taken, and so his hands just slowly rise up. Like, that is the picture I see in my head of getting on a microphone. You just don't know what to do with your hands.

Alban 39:24

Yeah, uh, you can't see this because it's an audio-only podcast, but I'm always holding my hands up.

Jordan 39:31

I was going to also mention it is awkward recording with a co-host. It's a different kind of awkward recording solo, where it's just you alone and you're talking to nobody. That's a little bit different. Um, and I don't know if I have a really solid tip, other than it just takes practice to speak to yourself. But if you just picture in your head, like so let's say that Megan was doing this podcast by herself, she would just picture in her head. Head the person that wrote in to her on that email saying, Hey, I know that you were a teacher and you got into this. Like, how did you do that? And so if she just pictures that person that wrote into her and she's speaking to that person, I think that that is a really good way to get over the weird, like recording solo mentality. And, you know, as a podcast producer, something that I always recommend and it's so funny because people kind of push back on this, but this is this is a real tip and it really works. Stand up when you're recording. If you feel like your energy is low and things are just kind of like dragging or you feel awkward, there's something about if you stand up, like um, I have a tall dresser in my bedroom and I remember um when I was recording by myself, I needed to get my energy up. And I just like prop my microphone up on top of that dresser and just stood in my bedroom and recorded into that microphone. And it just gives you so much more breath support. It makes your voice sound so much um more confident when you stand up. It gets your energy up. So even if you're having like a really tired day, just record standing up. It does wonders.

Alban 41:08

And anything you do just to get excited about what you're talking about is going to be helpful. You're passionate about this thing, you don't have to keep it sedated. Like you get to be expressive. That is the fun of listening to a podcast, is you get to hear the excitement coming from the person who's sharing with you. Or if it's humor, or if it's serious, or if it's like just lean into the emotion that you feel when you talk about this topic. So for Megan's podcast, I think like the genuine care that you have when you're talking about teachers who are feeling burned out or are contemplating kind of a career but also an identity shift. I think lean into it all the way because that's why people have shown up for this podcast. If you're not feeling like it's a funny podcast, you don't have to try to do humor just because you think people may enjoy the humor. Yeah. Lean into what you want to be doing in this podcast.

Megan 42:06

That's great advice. I would also say, too, I'm such a perfectionist. And so sometimes with recording, I get so hung up on if I mess up one word in a sentence. And something I've learned from working with Jordan is you can just stop mid-sentence and say the rest of the sentence and fix it in editing. And that has been so free for me to not feel like I need to nail it every single time, get every single part right. Like you don't need to worry about your mistakes. There's a lot you can clean up in editing that really helps. And that has just freed me so much as a perfectionist to just let it go.

Jordan 42:36

That's actually what I love about painting. Like Alban was talking earlier about thinking about getting into like acrylic painting. That's the great thing about paint, paint covers up mistakes. Painting is fantastic. It's so much easier than like drawing with a Sharpie, and it's like this permanent thing. And audio editing is the same thing. You know, you don't even have to repeat the entire sentence. You can just pause where you messed up and just restate that word and keep on going. It's amazing what you can do. And no one's gonna know.

Alban 43:00

No one's gonna know. Though I did listen to one of my favorite podcasts this year, and their last episode of the year, it's like at the end, and the host is like kind of reading off the end of the episode, like, oh, we're gonna be off next week. We're gonna be celebrating Christmas, but if you're celebrating another holiday, and he's kind of like stumbling over like how to say happy holidays, and he says it weirdly, and then he goes, Oh, okay, again, three, two, one. And the other co-host just is laughing and is like, we don't have to fix it. You're fine, you're it's tired, we're wrapping up for the year. Happy holidays, and they end. Yeah. And I was like, I love this so much more that they left in the mistake because it's something we all kind of go through. Like, you say happy holidays, but then it's after Christmas, so you stop saying Merry Christmas, and then you're saying, like, I hope you had a good Christmas. It's like we all know that, like, where your brain just gets foggy for a second and you say it wrong. Yeah. And they just left it in, and it was so much better than it was left in. So really lean into like some mistakes are okay. Some of them are part of the personality.

Jordan 44:03

I actually feel like

Editing For Clarity, Not Perfection

Jordan 44:04

this whole conversation segues super nicely into the next topic that I want to talk about, which is like once you've recorded your episode, then you have to edit it. And so, really, when you're looking at when you're sitting down to edit your first episode, I recommend, you know, just really focusing on the intro and outro. You know, do you have music? Do you not have music? That's totally fine too. Where is it gonna be placed? So for Megan's podcast, do you want theme music for your podcast? Yes, I personally love theme music in podcasts.

Megan 44:35

So I would definitely want some in mine.

Jordan 44:37

So the places that I'm going to recommend that we go for finding theme music for your podcast. We have this wonderful blog, 10 best places to get free music for your podcast. And there's awesome free options like Pixabay or YouTube Audio Library in Compitech, Freemusicarchive.org, which I've used so many times. And then we also have really great paid options like audio jungle or epidemic sound, places like that. It's a little bit more expensive, but it's a little bit easier to like search through those websites to find the correct theme music for your podcast.

Alban 45:14

I don't know if you know this, Jordan, but Adobe Podcast actually has some theme music built into it. Oh, okay. And it's all royalty-free. There's not a ton of options. So if you use it, you may hear it on other podcasts, but it it's kind of good to get at least some kind of a theme going. So you put something in there, maybe it's only in there the first episode, but it can give you a feel for here's where I'd put in 30 seconds of music or 12 seconds between a transition. That could be a nice stand-in if you don't want to go hunting for music for too long.

Megan 45:46

I remember when we were picking out music for a bus sprout weekly, I was overwhelmed by how many choices there were and just like, oh my gosh, like what do we want our sound to be? What do we want this? So if they have some options, you can kind of start to narrow it down that might be helpful for if you go search outside of Adobe as well.

Jordan 46:00

Speaking of Adobe, it's funny. I was actually listening to the like 2026 podcast predictions episode of Pod News Weekly Review, and Adobe was talking about all these things that they had done. And one of the things that I actually wasn't familiar with, so they have their AI software called Adobe Firefly. And they've added music generation to Adobe Firefly. And when you create music with that, it comes with a universal license that you can use for anything. And so if you were to create your own theme music on Adobe Firefly, then it covers licensing for your podcast too, which is nice to not have to worry about that. And it would be something custom that no one else has. So that's kind of cool. That's awesome. And with editing, I really think, especially when you're first starting out, keep it simple. It does not have to be perfect. You do not have to have every little like breath edited out. You do not have to have every um. I mean, we had an episode about filler words and how some filler words actually do serve a purpose. They're not all bad. It's okay to have filler words in your podcast as long as it's not distracting. Then you just edit your content first. So this is just taking out the really big stuff. If you start saying a word and you pause and then you want to restart it again, just take out the one that was flubbed, you know, any big mistakes like that. And then if you want to dive even deeper, you really don't have to, but if you want to dive any even deeper and, you know, clean out your dog barking in the background, or um maybe you stop and cough for a second and you want to just cut that out. Little distractions like that can be cut out pretty easily.

Alban 47:39

You put in the outline, I really liked this. You wrote, editing is more for clarity than it is about perfection. We're not trying to have a perfect conversation. We're just trying to make sure that it's clear.

Jordan 47:51

Exactly.

Alban 47:51

There was that episode where you were off for a week, Jordan, and Kevin edited it. And Kevin said the way he edited was he was trying to make it perfect. And so he just started at the beginning and he would edit for like five hours and had only gotten 20 minutes of the podcast done or something like that. Yeah. He put in way too much. He goes, Okay, this is way heavier of an edit than I can really give my time to. So he went back and he just did the rough edit first, and then he went back and started doing the finer details that he wanted to do the whole time. You don't get to all of them, but there needs to be a stopping point. The podcast episode that actually gets out to the world that you're giving to your audience, you know, the person who really is feeling a little bit the person who reached out to you in email, Megan, you know, about this question of how did you transition out of teaching? Your husband who's thinking about this right now. They're not sitting there critiquing the episode because they heard you cough. They're not thinking, well, this was a waste of time because there was a dog bark. They're feeling like, I'm so thankful there's someone who's even putting this out there online at all. And we can really get in our own heads because we think it's the cough that makes or breaks the episode. It's the slight mispronunciation of one word that will really mess it up. In a way, it's just for us. Instead, can we just take a step back from each of these like perfection pieces that we want to get in there and go, this is really a gift to somebody else? I'm just trying to give them something, even if it's not 100% perfect.

Megan 49:26

I think it's funny how we fixate on these things too, like coughs or breath sounds or filler words, which are all in normal conversation. Like if you were sitting down to talk to somebody, you would hear them breathing. They might say like or um, and you would hear them if they have a cough. And so I think sometimes, like Alban said, like we get so caught up on these things, but it's just for us. Like in a normal conversation, you would keep talking to that person if all of those things were happening. It's the content that really matters so much more than the like perfect edit.

Jordan 49:53

Megan, I have been talking about this for like years, and I've never come to that conclusion of, well, I don't try to like edit someone when they're speaking to me in person. Why would I need to do that? Like that never occurred to me. I love that thought.

Hosting, Distribution, And Categories

Jordan 50:08

So we have our first episode, we have our cover art, we have our podcast concept, title, all that stuff. So now we're going to set up the podcast hosting. So one of the questions I get asked most at podcast conferences.

Alban 50:20

Ooh, I know this one.

Jordan 50:21

Do you?

Alban 50:21

What does Buzzsprout do? What is a podcast host? You know where the coffee is. Can I get a coffee? Those are the top three.

Jordan 50:29

So, what Buzzsprout basically does is you upload your audio file and then we distribute your episode to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Cast, all those things.

Alban 50:41

And your hosts, we can do a few other things. Like we'll give you a website. You know, it's a nice place where we can transcribe the audio for you so that Apple and everybody else who wants the podcast transcript, they'll pull that as well. You can get nice promotion tools like our visual sound bites. There's lots of extra things you can do with BuzzBrow. But the main thing is it's like that one spot where you put the show notes in, you put the episodes in, and we get you into all the directories. And honestly, that has gotten so much easier.

Jordan 51:14

Yeah.

Alban 51:14

In the old days, you used to go to every single directory and go through kind of a more manual process. Uh, Apple originally, you had to have like an iTunes account that had a credit card attached to it, even though the credit card wasn't used for anything. And you just put the URL in and hoped that it got into Apple Podcasts. Now with Buzzsprout, you can literally just go through and just start clicking like get listed, get listed, get listed across all these apps. And the apps are sophisticated enough, they allow us just to hand them the podcast with all of the info and pretty quickly get your podcast listed in all the directories around the world.

Megan 51:54

Makes it so much easier.

Jordan 51:55

Yeah. And so before you submit your podcast to the directories, you need to fill out some information in Buzzsprout. It's really not a ton. So in the podcast settings on Buzzsprout, podcast title, we'll type out second syllabus and then podcast description. We can talk about what the podcast is, um, who it's for, what kind of topics you'll cover maybe. And it's just like a short description of the podcast. Then we'll upload our podcast artwork. And then below podcast artwork, we have podcast categories. So this is what you want to choose to make sure that you are showing up under the right topics, on the right charts. And really the one that you want to focus on, the one that you want to make sure you really get nailed down with your podcast niche is going to be the first one, the top drop-down menu. And there's so many different categories for podcasts: there's arts, business, comedy, education, religion, society, and culture, sports, TV. You're going to be able to find a category for your podcast. And in recent years, Apple Podcasts has actually added more subcategories to the mix. So, Megan, if we're looking at yours, it would probably be in the education category. Yeah, that sounds right. So we've got education, courses, how to language learning and self-improvement.

Alban 53:17

Is there maybe like careers?

Jordan 53:19

Oh, yeah. So, like business careers, that could be a good one. I think so.

Megan 53:24

That could pull a different audience.

Jordan 53:26

Yeah. Okay. So we would choose business careers and then language, your podcast is going to be in English, presumably. Yes. You'll choose your time zone and then podcast creator, you will type in your name. And then you'll just save that podcast info and then upload your first episode, enter in your episode title, description, and then after you have your first episode loaded into BuzzSprout, then you can submit your podcast to directories. Because I think a lot of times they need one episode at least published to be submitted, right?

Alban 53:59

And that's why bigger podcasts will often do the trailers because they want to get listed in all the directories. And the way to do that is to kind of put together a trailer for most indie podcasters. My recommendation would be let's just start publishing episodes and then get those into Apple Podcasts. There's not going to be a massive audience waiting for your podcast if you're brand new.

Jordan 54:22

Yeah.

Alban 54:22

So just start putting them out there and use that to get listed everywhere.

Jordan 54:26

Actually,

Launch Mindset And Early Promotion

Jordan 54:27

that's a good segue into like launching. So once you have your podcast set up, you have your first episode out there. I do want to ask you, Alban, because I hear from a lot of people, they're like, oh, well, you know, I've got this whole launch strategy and I don't want my podcast to be out there before I have my scheduled launch strategy. Like I'm scheduled to be out January 15th, but I want to make sure that I'm listed everywhere. And so I want to make sure that my episode is published and out there early, but I don't have a trailer. What advice would you give to somebody that is feeling that kind of like sense of dread of like, I'm not ready yet? Why would I have to put it out there?

Alban 55:05

I would say, man, that is an awesome problem to have if it ends up happening. If the problem is that you published your podcast and you got into directories and somebody found it and shared it and it went viral, that is the best thing that could have happened. It's so good that it might even be a good strategy to pretend like it was an accidental leak. I mean, I you see this sometimes in the music industry, yeah. Where it's like a song is leaked and you're like, was it really leaked? Or was this just a promotion? So I'd say just publish. Don't stress it. Having a launch strategy should really be more around after I publish episodes, I reach out to my own guests and ask them to help promote it. I post on social media. You know, I go through just the standard ideas of getting my podcast out to the world.

Jordan 55:54

Yeah.

Alban 55:55

Putting some time aside to promote the podcast is the launch strategy. It's the promotion strategy long term. The launch side, I would just say don't put too much weight on getting the launch perfect because there's not going to be a massive built-in audience at the beginning.

Megan 56:11

I agree about like not putting too much stress on the launch. I think you'd also be surprised on just the traction you can get from sharing with your friends and family, especially when starting a podcast. Like so many people are going to be excited for you and want to support you. And I feel like if you ask them to share or to share with a few people who they think might like it, that can spread a lot further than you think and introduce your podcast to new audiences. I've seen a lot of people have success with that. Um, and it's just an easy, low-lift way to not have to put a ton of stress on growing your podcast from the beginning.

Alban 56:40

Yeah. We got a really nice piece of fan mail from British Columbia. It said, hi guys, I read this before I started my podcast in 2020, but didn't really pay attention and almost gave up before I recorded 10 episodes. It takes a long time to build an audience, months at least for new shows. Don't worry about analytics during that time. Focus on getting better and making your show. And I love this piece of fan mail. Um, one, it's totally true, and just such a good reminder. Like, there's a lot of anxiety tied to the idea that we're going to be performing for so many people. And the truth is it's kind of an uncomfortable truth, but it's a also reassuring truth. Like in the beginning, there won't be a ton of people. And the benefit is you're gonna go and perform, but it's for like a few people in the beginning. And then as you get better, the audience will grow. And so you don't have to feel stressed out about it. You can just lean into, I've got a nice small audience. I'm just talking to a small, you know, table of people. Now I'm talking to a classroom-sized audience. And over time, that will continue to grow into bigger and bigger audiences.

Jordan 57:52

Yeah.

Megan 57:52

And I would say let that be framed to you in the beginning. Like if you're only talking to a small group in the beginning or your numbers are smaller in the beginning, great. That's a lot less pressure every time you go to record. You're obviously still wanting to put out the best content that you can, but you're not having this weight of, oh my gosh, 500 people are going to be hearing this and I have to get everything perfect. Absolutely.

Jordan 58:12

All right. Well, this was fun just trying to, in real time, put together a podcast. And I actually feel like we have a really solid podcast for Megan, all within the span of a single buzzcast episode. So I think that it's doable in an afternoon to at least take the first steps in creating your podcast if you're wanting to do that.

Megan 58:32

Thank you guys so much. This was so helpful. I can't believe how much we got done in such a short amount of time. And I think when I get home, my husband's gonna be like, wait, we're doing what? I'll be like, no, don't worry. We have it all planned out.

Alban 58:43

I do hope we are uh have you ever seen that meme that's like uh how to draw an owl? And it's like draw a circle, draw another circle, and then it's like draw the rest of the owl. And it's like just it goes from step one, step two, and it's done. I do feel like we've done a little bit of that if we're saying we've done this a little bit, because we have actually made the artwork while we're doing this episode. We came up with a title, we did the description, we have some concepts for episodes, but the hard part is drawing the owl, and drawing the owl is going to be hitting record and doing the episode. It's going to be editing and then stopping when the editing is done and but not perfect.

Jordan 59:26

Yeah.

Alban 59:27

It's going to be publishing, even when you know I think I'd like this to be a little bit better. It's going to be promoting on social media even when it doesn't feel totally comfortable. Each of those pieces is kind of like it's the actual drawing of the owl.

Jordan 59:42

Yeah.

Alban 59:42

And so I just want to encourage everybody, you're going to get better and better and better and better the more you do this thing. It's super uncomfortable to do things. But boy, is it awesome. Like we we are supposed to make stuff. We're not just supposed to consume it. And so just it's really cool. I'm so excited. This time of year, because we get to see so many cool shows get launched.

Jordan 1:00:04

So for our next episode, I want to talk about setting realistic or like healthy goals or milestones for your podcast, like what success will look like for you in the coming year. And what we really need for this episode to be successful, no pun intended, is we need all of our listeners to write in, tap the Texas show link in the show notes to tell us what success looks like for you, for your podcast in the next year. Like what are some goals that you have? We have so many listeners who have these super niche podcasts that are not going to have the same goals as podcasts that are getting, you know, million downloads per episode or something like that. We're gonna have completely different bars set for our podcast of things that we'll look back and say, you know what? That was a successful year in podcasting. So, like I said, go ahead and tap the Text the Show link in the show notes to send that in. And until next time, thanks for listening and keep podcasting.

Post Show: Skimo

Megan 1:01:13

Now that Christmas is over, my full attention has turned to the Winter Olympics are coming.

Alban 1:01:18

The Winter Olympics are this year?

Megan 1:01:19

Yes, they're in February of this year. So bust out your red, white, and blue because we are getting ready to watch NBC.

Alban 1:01:27

Where are the Winter Olympics this year?

Megan 1:01:28

I think they're in Italy. Yeah, Milano Cortina.

Jordan 1:01:32

So fancy.

Megan 1:01:33

Like how fun. Just when I feel like we're going into this time of year that is for me not my favorite because I just feel like it's colder and gray in Florida. We get to watch the Olympics. I'm like, what a bright spot. Oh, we get figure skating. Yes, figure skating, curling. It's all coming.

Alban 1:01:49

Isn't it crazy? There's so many like real sports that are not in the Olympics at all. Like some of the most popular sports in the world just have no representation in the Olympics. But then there's some that like curling, which you've never ever seen anyone do except during the Olympics.

Megan 1:02:06

I mean, do you think that they maybe we're just not in an area where they curl in Florida?

Jordan 1:02:10

I was gonna say we're gonna get like some listener messages where they're like, you're ignorant.

Alban 1:02:16

I'm sure that I'm ignorant, but I don't think that the global demand for curling is anywhere close to American football. Like, there's so many sports that are just like really big, and then it there's like all these specialized, you know, shooting competitions, you know, where they have to like ski across like for a hundred miles and then shoot one target or something. Archery. It's cool. I'm not against any of it. I just think it's interesting. There's all these sports that I've never seen at all. I've no exposure to, and there's somebody who like they work at a Home Depot and they work full time on like trying to become great at this specific type of archery, and then they go dominate, and for like one day every four years, I'm like fully invested in their success and so excited.

Jordan 1:03:05

Alban, it's funny that you mentioned this because if I'm looking at the details here, and speaking of specialized sports, there's a new sport that is being included in the Winter Olympics. Do you want to hear it?

Alban 1:03:18

Is it gonna be American football?

Jordan 1:03:21

No, I've never heard of this in my life. It is ski mountaineering.

Alban 1:03:27

Okay, what is ski mountaineering?

Jordan 1:03:29

Tell me more. Let's see here. What is ski mountaineering? Oh, it's called ski mo. It's a demanding human-powered sport combining uphill climbing and downhill skiing on challenging alpine terrain, using specialized gear-like skins for the traction during ascents and quick transitions for descents. And it will debut as a new sport in the 2026 Winter Olympics. So these are people like both climbing a mountain and skiing down it at the same time. So I wonder what that course is gonna look like. I know they're like sheer cliff.

Megan 1:04:02

You're really good at skiing, but can you climb this mountain?

Jordan 1:04:04

That's gonna be like, what is that gonna look like? That's crazy.

Alban 1:04:10

They they have the opportunity to buy the lift ticket, but it's like $1,800 or something. So nobody does, so they all climb.

Megan 1:04:18

Like, no, absolutely not. We'll be tuning in for sure.